ELKAHRT LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 15, 2009) -- James Sofronas only needed one
perfect lap around Road America to earn his second SCCA Pro Racing SPEED
World Challenge GT pole of the season. Kuno Wittmer, of Montreal, Quebec,
will start second for Sunday's Round Eight Race, the Road America
Grand Prix Presented by StopTech, part of the Time Warner Cable Road Race
Showcase weekend.

Leading the field onto the 14-turn, four-mile course for a 20-minute
qualifying session, Sofronas could quickly tell that he had a pole-worthy
car underneath him.

"I was up front, so it was nice and peaceful," Sofronas said.
"I just led the parade out and did my own pace. I tried to keep the
tires really cool, because they can heat up quick over this long track.
Then, I started getting heat in them in the Carousel and I thought
'wow, this car is really sticking,' so the confidence started to
build.

"I nailed the last corner and realized I was shifting a lot earlier
than I was yesterday and I thought 'this is it.' Then I noticed
Tony Rivera shut the gap on me by about five car lengths and I got a
little discouraged for a second. Going into Turn Five, I broke at the
three marker, which is the first time I've done that all weekend. I
could tell the StopTech brakes were going to be there and they just
stuck. From there, I totally pulled away from Tony. In the Kink, I
tracked out totally to the outside edge and again I was thinking,
'wow, we're on a good lap here.'"

In the No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3, Sofronas stopped
the clock with a 2:15.860 (107.263 mph) to earn his second pole of the
season.

"When I came through, I wasn't expecting that time," Sofronas
said. "It's amazing how important the corners are here for
getting a good run onto the straights. The Porsches have good traction,
so that definitely helped. It was a perfect lap, so I just parked it,
because I'd never be able to do that lap again"

In the post-qualifying coin toss, Sofronas correctly called heads to
prevent the top five on the grid from inverting. The Long Beach race
winner is relying on a strong start and consistent laps to collect his
second win of 2009 in Sunday morning's 50-minute race.

"The Porsche launches pretty good," Sofronas said. "If I can
get a good start and establish a position, hopefully the Viper [of
second-starting Kuno Wittmer] will be really wide behind me. If he's
faster than me, we'll let it play out during the race. Kuno [Wittmer]
is a great driver. He's proven himself in the Touring Car ranks and
now he's proving himself in GT. It'll take a hell of a launch and
me pulling some perfect laps to establish a performance level in the race
and get a nice rhythm. You can't make any mistakes at Road America
in the Porsche. If you lose any momentum, you're a dead duck on the
straighaway, so that'll be the key here."

Making his World Challenge GT debut this weekend, Touring Car ace Wittmer
qualified the No. 13 Woodhouse Performance Dodge Viper second with a lap
of 2:16.051 (107.112 mph).

Piloting the No. 97 Tax Masters/Brass Monkey Racing Porsche 911 GT3, Tony
Rivera, of Missouri City, Texas, turned an identical time to Wittmer in
qualifying. Per the SCCA Pro Racing rules, Wittmer was awarded the second
spot for having a quicker second-fastest lap. Rivera will start third.

Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., will start fourth in the No.
10 Applied Computer Solutions/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra. The
current point leader entered a qualifying time of 2:16.378 (106.856 mph).

The GT portion of the Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech will
launch from a standing start, Sunday, Aug. 16, at 9:35 a.m. (CDT). Live
timing, lap notes and streaming audio are available at
www.world-challenge.com.